Little Mermaid

What a fabulous virtuosic display of color and animation "The Little Mermaid" is! What a terrific musical score! And how very sorely disappointing it is! Using a Hans Christian Andersen story is a delicate matter because of the gruesome nature of many of his plots. But I was confident Disney could create a truly great children's film out of his story. What I saw was a movie inappropriate for children and repulsive to conscientious adults.

It was supposed to be a brief stop at the Primadonna casino, 43 miles south of Las Vegas, but one poker game led to another. By 3 a.m. May 25, 1997, Jeremy Strohmeyer and David Cash were tired of hanging around the arcade, waiting for David's dad. Bored, the two 18-year-olds decided to urinate on two coin-operated games. David chose Big Bertha, whose polka-dot dress flared when players hurled balls into her gaping red mouth. Jeremy selected a helicopter game. Then a wall socket.

John Neumeier doesn't know "who started the rumor" that all children should avoid seeing his ballet "The Little Mermaid. " But he suspects that the culprits might be big fans of the exuberant 1989 animated Disney film that made the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale synonymous with spunky, red-haired Ariel and the crab Sebastian singing "Under the Sea. " "My ballet doesn't have the sweet aftertaste of the Disney film, and there are moments of...

For many parents of young children, the battle over limiting little ones' time with iPads and other mobile devices is difficult and seemingly unending. They can serve as fantastic baby sitters in a pinch, but the soulless gaze they can prompt in children can be downright terrifying. A number of scientific studies have raised red flags; this summer Public Health England, for instance, warned that children who spend more time watching screens tend to have higher levels of emotional distress, anxiety and depression.

Following weak box office performances for re-releases of "Monsters, Inc.," "Finding Nemo" and "Beauty and the Beast" in 3-D, Walt Disney Studios has canceled plans for a 3-D "The Little Mermaid" in September. The underwater animated hit from 1989 was the fourth and final 3-D re-release for which Disney announced plans in late 2011 after "The Lion King" proved a surprise hit in the format, grossing nearly $100 million in the U.S. and Canada. But "The Lion King" turned out to be an anomaly, as the three follow-ups grossed far less.

The idea for a Little Mermaid dark ride has been in the so-called blue-sky stages of creative brainstorming at Walt Disney Imagineering since the movie premiered in 1989 -- from rough artist sketches to scale-model mock-ups to fully realized concepts. After 22 years in the making, Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure will officially open Friday at Disney California Adventure . "The attraction has been worked on quite a bit since the film came out," said Lisa Girolami, Imagineering's senior show producer for the new ride.

A new Stone Age children's comedy and a Disney classic have debuted at the top of the DVD and Blu-ray sales chart. "The Croods," the DreamWorks computer-animated movie about a prehistoric family, was the top-selling title in its first week in release after bringing in big numbers at the box office earlier this year. The movie, distributed by 20th Century Fox, drew more than $187 million in ticket sales domestically and $585 million worldwide. In second place was the new Diamond Edition of Disney's 1989 hit "The Little Mermaid.

A roundup of entertainment headlines for Wednesday: Disney plans 3-D releases of "The Little Mermaid," "Beauty and the Beast," "Finding Nemo" and "Monsters, Inc. " ( Los Angeles Times ) "The Playboy Club" is canceled already. ( Los Angeles Times ) It's news that makes Hugh Hefner sad. There, there, Hugh. ( Access Hollywood ) Meanwhile, "The Playboy Club" actor Ed Cibrian was injured on set and taken to a hospital with a deep gash in his foot, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Surgeons began a delicate operation late Tuesday on Peru's "little mermaid," a baby born with her legs fused from her thighs to her ankles. The surgery was the first of three planned to repair the rare birth defect. Thirteen-month-old Milagros Cerron giggled and played on her hospital bed ahead of the surgery. She is about the size and weight of a normal 6-month-old. The operation was to last four to six hours, said Dr. Luis Rubio, leader of a team of 11 surgeons.